Love Struck
by QTR
Summary: Catherine gets worried about Sara when she starts seeing a guy, and when she seems to be hiding something. Something Catherine is all too familiar with.
1. Hiding Something

Grissom walked through the lab that morning, sipping a big mug of coffee. Nick was laughing in the break room, cracking jokes with the rest of the team. Catherine and Warrick found the jokes quite humorous; Sara was reading a book, not really listening to the jokes. Grissom walked into the break room handing Nick and Warrick a file.

"Nick, Warrick-Missing-persons in Henderson. Catherine, Sara," he started handing them a file. "419 downtown," he said. "As for me, I'm going to court," he said walking out. Everyone headed for their crime scenes.

As Sara drove both herself and Catherine to the scene, Catherine noticed something- it was the middle of summer and Sara was wearing a long-sleeved sweater. "Sara?" Catherine asked her. "What?" she asked turning. "What's up with the sweater?" she asked her, pointing to it. "Oh, I'm cold," she told her. "…In the middle of summer?" "Well, I took a cold shower this morning," she told her, putting the car in park as they arrived at the scene. "…Right," Catherine said, not believing her.

They walked out, grabbing their kits. Sara quickly ducked under the crime-scene tape and started taking photos of the body. Catherine went to ask Brass about the body.

As Brass talked to Catherine, telling her about the body, Catherine was still pondering the question in her mind- why was Sara wearing a sweater in summer? "Uh, thanks Brass," Catherine said, though she hadn't heard a word from the detective. She walked over to the scene and started processing.

As they drove back to the lab, Catherine could see beads of sweat dripping down Sara's face, so she tried again. "Aren't you too hot in that sweater?" she asked her. "No, I'm okay," she said as they arrived at the lab. Catherine just nodded and walked back into the lab, watching Sara as she locked up the car. She went to the locker room, flipping through her things when Sara walked into the room. Her cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Sara said answering the phone. "Oh, hello Jake. Yeah, I'm still at work. I'll be back soon. Huh? Okay, bye," she said hanging up. "Date?" Catherine asked her, smiling. "You could say that. We've been dating for a while now," Sara said going through her things. A thought stuck Catherine's mind. "How about you go home early tonight? I have everything under control, go meet the guy for dinner," she told her smiling. "Um, are you sure?" Sara asked her. Catherine just nodded and shooed her out of the lab. She smiled to herself as she watched Sara back out of the lab parking lot and leave.

Sara came into the lab the next morning, wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt. This still bugged Catherine- why would she be wearing them in this weather? Obviously, she could tell she wasn't too cold, since she would have beads of sweat dripping down her face all the time. Later in the day, a man arrived at the lab.

"Sara, you've got a visitor," Catherine teased her, looking at the tall man at the front desk. He walked through the lab, straight to Sara. "Sara, where've you been?" he asked her. "I'm sorry, I was really busy," she told him, walking over to him. "Well, that's alright, as long as you're pacing yourself. Why don't you come home now?" he asked her. She looked at Catherine, who only nodded.

"Um, okay," she said taking off her latex gloves. "I'll just get my things," she said heading to the locker room. He walked back toward the front desk, waiting for her. When she came out of the locker room, she looked a little nervous. She had a forced smile across her face and walked out with the man. Catherine looked at her strangely, but thought nothing of it.

Sara was in the car with Jake, who drove back to her apartment. "I thought you said you'd be home at four," he said a bit irritated. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I got tied up in work, I guess I just forgot…" He sighed as he stepped out of the car, locking it up. He went into Sara's apartment, and she followed shortly after. She closed the door behind her.

Nothing was heard from the apartment, except for some muffled voices and a loud crash.

TBC…


	2. Help

Sara drove to work the next day. She walked inside without saying a word, going straight to the break room and getting a cup of coffee. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt again, which Catherine quickly noticed. Catherine walked up to her. "Hey," she said sitting down next to her.

"Hey," Sara said sipping her coffee. "What's up?" Catherine asked her. "Nothing," Sara replied, trying to avoid conversation. "Is anything wrong?" Catherine asked. "No, nothing," she said putting the coffee down. She stood up and walked out of the break room to the locker room. She sat down on the bench holding her head in her hands. Catherine followed her.

"Sara, if something's wrong, you can tell me, believe me, I've heard it all," she said sitting next to her. "Nothing's wrong," Sara said not looking up. "…Sara," she said sighing. "Are you having a little trouble with your relationship with that guy?" she asked her. Sara quickly looked up. "N-No, of course not!" she said standing up and walking out. Catherine sighed as she headed out of the locker room.

"Okay, so, we've got fibers at the scene and fingerprints," Catherine said going over the evidence they had so far in one of the lab workspaces. Sara just nodded. "We ran the prints through AFIS, and they kicked out a name. "Hugh Fresco," she said looking at the man's file. "He's got a record- drug dealing and several DUI," she told Sara handing her the file. Sara looked at the man's file and nodded. "It looks like we have our guy," Sara said. "When was he released from prison?" "Two days ago," Catherine told her. "Well, that's long enough for him to be our killer," she said putting the file down.

"I'll call Brass; have him bring the guy in and get a warrant to search the guy's house," Sara said walking out of the lab. Catherine knew the case was about to be over, and she wanted to ask Sara what was wrong with her, but she decided to wait until the case was over.

Brass brought the guy into interrogation after Sara and Catherine searched his house. They found a gun, which had just been cleaned, and blood stained towels with the victim's blood on them. The guy was arrested- he had no alibi. After the case, Sara walked out of the interrogation room to find Jake walking over to her quickly.

"Where have you been?" he said a bit angrily. "I told you I was busy today," Sara said backing up a bit. "You were supposed to be home!" he said grabbing her shoulders. "I'm sorry," she said looking up at him. "Sorry isn't good enough!" he said grabbing her wrists. Sara winced as he did this and Catherine saw this as she walked out. "Hey!" she said walking over to the guy. "Leave her alone," she told him, pushing him away from Sara. He just looked at Catherine and muttered to himself walking off. Sara quickly walked off, but Catherine stopped her.

"Sara," she said stepping in front of her. "What?" Sara asked, looking up at her. "That guy isn't good for you," she told her. "He hurt you." "I'm fine," Sara told her. "He was right, I should've come home when I said I would," she said stepping around Sara. "Sara, stop," she said blocking her path. She went into an empty room with Sara and grabbed her arm, pulling up her sleeves. When she pulled up the sleeves, Sara's wrists were revealed- they were badly bruised and as she lifted the rest of her sleeve up, so were her arms.

"Sara…" she said looking at the bruises. "I'm okay," she said shaky. "Sara, believe me…I know how this feels," she told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Sara tried to hold back the tears, but she couldn't. Catherine grabbed a wetted rag and went over Sara's face. When she stopped, she found that she had removed a thick layer of make-up, revealing a large bruise under her eye. "Sara…" she said looking at it.

Sara couldn't help it any more and started crying. Catherine hugged her. "It's okay, Sara," she said with tears forming in her eyes. "It's okay…I'll help you," she told her.

TBC…


	3. I Was Glad to Help

Catherine drove Sara to her apartment. They heard a voice inside. "He's here…" Sara said, shaking. "It's okay," Catherine told her. "Wait here," she said getting out of the car. Sara sat alone in the car- but she was worried about Catherine. Catherine walked up to the apartment door and knocked on it.

"Jake, come out here where I can see you!" she said grabbing her gun. He opened the door to find Catherine with her gun drawn, but his eyes automatically scanned the area for Sara and he saw her in the car. He ran out of the apartment to the car and threw her door open, grabbing her from the car.

"Hey! Over here!" Catherine said running over to him. "Shut up!" he said hitting Catherine across the face, making her lip bleed some. "Catherine!" Sara said worried about her. "Jake, stop it! Leave her out of this!" she said punching his face. She was a bit surprised at the sudden strength she had found inside herself, but it didn't last long because he slapped her.

Sara tried to elbow him, but he leaned down and bit her arm, drawing blood. Sara screamed out in pain, just as the police arrived. "Right on time," Catherine said smiling as she wiped blood away from her mouth. Jake looked around at the cops.

He grabbed Catherine and held a gun to her head. "Don't make another move, or she's gonna get it!" he yelled, a firm grip on Catherine. Sara got angry; she should have never brought Catherine into this whole thing, and she ran behind Jake.

"Don't move!" he yelled to the cops. Catherine was silent- she knew Sara had a plan. And, she knew for sure about it when the next thing happened.

Sara jumped on top of Jake, throwing her arms over his face, making him unable to see. He was throwing his arms around rapidly, trying to get Sara off of him, and he let Catherine go. Catherine kicked his stomach, making him lose his balance, but at the same time, he fell down onto the ground on top of Sara. Sara gasped for breath as the sudden weight was put over her, and she quickly got out from under the man.

"Thanks, Catherine," she said getting up and catching her breath. "No problem, and thank you," she said thanking her as well. Jake was lying on the ground, but he wasn't finished with this whole thing for good. He jumped onto his feet behind Sara. "Sara, move!" Catherine said quickly to her. "What?" Sara said, confused, but quickly knew what she meant after he held his arm around Sara's neck. She was losing her breath quickly, as he strangled her. _This is it_ she thought. She thought of all the cases she had worked on with battered women, and how she had gotten too emotionally involved with them, as Grissom said.

Jake moved back toward the apartment, strangling Sara as he went. She had finally had enough and bit down on his arm hard as he had done to her. He yelled out in pain as he threw her onto the ground. He grabbed his gun and held it to Sara's chest. He was about to pull the trigger, but Catherine acted first and he fell over, blood pouring down from his gunshot wound.

Sara got up so he wouldn't fall on her again. Catherine ran over to Sara and helped her up. She went over to the ambulance and they made sure her arm wasn't infected from where he had bitten her. They bandaged it up and cleaned her other cuts and scrapes, as they did to Catherine. "Catherine, I…I'm so sorry," Sara told her when everything was finally over.

"I know, Sara. But, things like this just happen, and believe me- I was happy to help," she said smiling. "No one helped me when Eddie was this way…so I'm glad I was able to help you," she told her. Sara smiled as they closed the doors to the ambulance, and as it drove off into the distance.

The End


End file.
